Advanced Returns Scenario: Material
Received

Purpose

In this
scenario, you have already received the materials when you create the returns
order to trigger the customer returns process. The customer has either
returned the goods to the counter directly, or he has shipped a quantity of
goods to a warehouse or distribution center without advance notice. An example
of the latter scenario would be when the customer gives the goods that he
wants to return to your associates when they are at the customer site for a
normal delivery. Shipment to a company location without advance notice is also
called an unplanned return.

Prerequisites

The Customer
Returns business process is related to sales business processes. This means that you
usually create returns orders with reference to a preceding sales order or the
corresponding billing document (invoice).

Process Flow

For the returns scenario with received materials, the following business
process runs in SAP ERP.

You determine
what goods are being returned and in what quantity. Then you create the
relevant returns order items.

You enter the
return reason to specify why the customer wants to returns the
material.

As you have
already received the material, you select the Material
Receivedcheckbox. If the
creation of returns orders for received materials is the normal case, you can
specify that the Material Receivedcheckbox is selected by default. You can make
this setting in IMG activity Configure Default Values for
Returns Orders.

If you can
inspect the goods on the spot, you select the appropriate inspection code and
enter an inspection comment if you want. Then you can select one of the
following follow-up activities:

¡Immediately Move
to Scrap

¡Immediately Move
to Free Available Stock

¡Immediately Move
to Specified Stock

¡Ship to
Vendor

¡Ship to Other
Plant.

You also enter
any associated details such as the next plant or the vendor.

If you cannot
decide the returned material status and require an expert to perform an
inspection later, then you select the follow-up activity Receive into Plant.

If you
recognize, in an unplanned returns scenario, that the customer was not
eligible to return the material, you select Send Back to
Customer as follow-up activity. When the customer is at the counter and
the material cannot be returned, you simply do not create an entry in the
system.

The following
follow-up activities are not allowed when you select the Material Received checkbox:

¡Direct Shipment
to Vendor

¡Inspection at
Customer Site

¡Delivery into
Plant – Materials Still Unknown

¡Material
Remains at Customer Site

For all
follow-up activities except Send Back to Customer,
you can define a refund for the customer directly in the returns order by
selecting Immediately as the refund control and
entering an appropriate refund code to define the refund amount.
Alternatively, you can select By Credit Memo
Request if you want to defer the decision about the refund. If you are
forwarding the goods to a vendor, you can select After
Receipt of Credit Memo. This refund control value is only allowed for
follow-up activity Ship to Vendor in a customer
returns scenario. When you select refund control By
Credit Memo Request or After Receipt of Credit
Memo, you must use the Customer Refund
Determination transaction to define the refund amount.

You can only
enter No Refund as the refund control when you
specify Send Back to Customer as the follow-up
activity.

Once you have
entered all the necessary returns information, you can save the returns
order.

2.Create returns
delivery

When you save
the returns order, the system creates a returns delivery for the returns
order.

3.Post goods
receipt

The system
posts the goods receipt for the corresponding returns delivery
automatically.

You can make
specific stock settings for the following logistical follow-up
activities:

¡Receive into
Plant

¡Immediately Move
to Free Available Stock

¡Immediately Move
to Scrap

¡Immediately
Move to Specified Stock.

You do this in
Customizing for Advanced Returns Management by
choosing GeneralSettings®Goods Movement Settings for Follow-Up
Activities.

If you have
entered an inspection code in the returns order item, the system copies that
value by default. For this follow-up activity, the inspection code you entered
in the returns order does not appear as a returns step in the Returns Overview transaction for the returns order.

5.Create returns
purchase order

If you have
selected Ship to Vendor, the system creates the
corresponding returns purchase order for the specified vendor. If necessary,
you can change this document. Then you continue with the returns process as
described in Supplier Returns in
ERP – Advanced Returns Management for returns purchase
orders.

6.Create returns
stock transport order

If you have
selected Ship to Other Plant or Ship to Vendor via Other Plant, the system creates the
corresponding returns stock transport order for the specified plant. If
necessary, you can change this document. Then you continue with the returns
process as described in Supplier Returns in
ERP – Advanced Returns Management for returns stock transport
orders.

7.Create outbound
delivery to customer

If you have
selected Send Back to Customer, the system creates an outbound delivery
with the customer as the ship-to-party. If necessary, you can change this
outbound delivery.

8.Create credit
memo request

If you have
entered By Credit Memo Request or After Receipt of Credit Memo as the refund control, you must
use the Customer Refund Determination transaction
to create a credit memo request for the customer.

If you have
specified Immediately as the refund control so
that a credit memo is created for the returns order item, you can still create
a credit memo request using transaction VA01 (Logistics®Sales and Distribution ® Sales
® Order
®
Create). This
procedure might be required if the customer is not satisfied with the original
refund amount. To have the new credit memo request included in the Returns Overview, you must create the credit memo
request with reference to the returns order.

You can also
create a credit memo request in this way if you specified Send Back to Customer as the follow-up activity and No Refund as the refund control. This procedure might be
required in the following situation for example: The material is only slightly
damaged and can still be used by the customer, but the material fault is your
responsibility and you cannot offer a replacement. In this case, you send back
the material and create a credit memo request.

As you are
creating the credit memo request with reference to the returns order, the
refund control value is copied from the returns order. In the two examples
mentioned above, the value is Immediately or No Refund. You can use BAdI method Change Returns Data of BAdI Change
Returns Data and Billing Block in Returns Orders to adjust the value to
By Credit Memo Request.

9.Create credit
memo

If you enter Immediately as the refund control in
returns order items, you create a credit memo for those items. If you make the
appropriate settings in Customizing, the system can create credit memos
automatically when you save the returns order. Alternatively, you can create
the credit memos in a separate step, either individually or collectively. You
can also schedule a background job to create pending credit memos.

You follow the
same procedure to create the credit memos for credit memos requests that you
created in the CustomerRefund Determination transaction.

10.Monitor returns
process

After you have
saved the returns order, the Returns Overview
detail tree displays the following documents or returns steps for a returns
order item.

Customer return
received directly, Customer return received into free available stock, or Customer return received and scrapped nodes with
processing status Process complete or Process incomplete depending on the refund control

The processing
status is Document complete if you selected the
Create Credit Memo Automatically checkbox for the
relevant returns order type in Customizing. Otherwise the processing status is
Document not yet created.

¡Credit Memo
Request with processing
status Document not yet createdif you have specified By
Credit Memo Request or After Receipt of Credit
Memo as refund control.

¡If you
specified Ship to Vendor as the follow-up
activity:Ship to
vendor node with processing status Process
incomplete followed by Returns Purchase
Order

The processing
status is usually Document completebut can also be Document
incomplete if required data, for example a mandatory vendor RMA number,
is missing.

¡If you
specified Ship to Other Plant or Ship to Vendor via Other Plant as the follow-up activity: Ship
to other plantnode with
processing status Process incomplete followed by
Returns Stock Transport Order

The processing
status is usually Document completebut can also be Document
incomplete when required data is missing.